TURNER – The administrative offices of SAD 52 will remain in the Leavitt Institute building after all, based on a 3-2 vote by selectmen at a special meeting Monday night.

Last week, the selectmen had voted against honoring a negotiated, but unsigned, agreement with the school district to use the building.

That action followed the resignation of the entire Leavitt Institute Building Committee. Institute Committee members had participated in the negotiations with SAD 52 on May 5, but later said they couldn’t agree to the terms which had been negotiated.

Monday’s meeting wasn’t marked by the rancor and hostile behavior of previous meetings over this issue, but the same points were made.

Those points centered on some Institute Committee members’ insistence that the town gave up everything in negotiations; other officials from the board of selectmen and the Budget Committee said the town had gotten several concessions. The town-owned building sits in the middle of the school campus.

Under the agreement, SAD 52 will have 1 floors, the Turner Public Library will have the same and the Turner History Room will get one floor. The school originally wanted two floors but the library needed more than one, so a compromise was made to split the first floor.

SAD 52 will renovate the parking lot, and designate and provide signs for 20 spaces for use by library and history room patrons.

The school will pay $5 per square foot for the coming year and $3 per square foot for the following 10 years. Fuel and electricity costs will be paid by the tenants.

The school provides and maintains water and sewer facilities for the entire building. The school will continue janitorial services in the building and small maintenance duties. The town remains responsible for any large maintenance items, such as boilers and elevators.

According to Budget Committee member Kurt Youland, the square footage lease rate was lowered, in part, because they recognized the school would be spending approximately $75,000 on the parking lot renovations.

The turning point in the meeting appeared to be when SAD 52 Director Jerry Dubois told selectmen he did not believe the school board would negotiate again.

“It was a good faith negotiation (on May 5) and my true feeling is they won’t negotiate again,” he said. “If we walk out of here with a ‘no’, we will have to move forward in another direction.”

Following this statement, Selectwoman Jennifer Wadsworth made a motion to honor the May 5 agreement as negotiated.

A few minutes earlier, Wadsworth had made the same motion but it failed for lack of a second.

On her second attempt, the motion was seconded by Selectwoman Lori Fish. With no one indicating further discussion was necessary, Wadsworth and Fish were joined on the affirmative vote by Lawrence House. Ralph Caldwell and Henry Gibbert were opposed.

Last week, Caldwell, Gibbert and House voted to renegotiate the agreement with SAD 52; Wadsworth and Fish had voted against renegotiating it.

Immediately following Monday’s vote, Leavitt Institute Building Committee Chairwoman Bernice Gilbert asked selectmen to act on the committee’s resignations that were submitted in May. Those resignations were accepted, following a statement from Wadsworth to Institute Committee members about their service and importance to the town.